


Sometimes a Kiss is Just a Kiss, and Sometimes It's Everything

by Calacious



Category: Penny Dreadful (TV)
Genre: Contemplations of life and death, M/M, Tag for episode 4 season 1, kiss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-13
Updated: 2016-07-13
Packaged: 2018-07-23 16:41:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7471257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Calacious/pseuds/Calacious
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A tag to, "Demimonde". What else might have been going on in Ethan's mind during the kiss.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sometimes a Kiss is Just a Kiss, and Sometimes It's Everything

**Author's Note:**

> I came late to the show. As I was watching the first season, this episode, and this scene in particular, stood out to me, and I was inspired to write. 
> 
> I apologize for any, and all errors.

Sometimes a kiss is just a kiss. Sometimes it's more. Sometimes, less. Sometimes it's something else entirely.

Take now, for example - high on good drink, and even better company, pining after a love which will end in death, because everything ends in death, eventually, and not even the immortal have any hope of escaping its inevitable pull - fingers digging into supple, willing flesh; lips locked; the world, and all of his problems melting away, and suddenly a kiss is everything that keeps him tethered to this life, and somehow more.

He doesn't want it to end, but like all things good, bad and in between, he knows that it _will_ end. Just like, one day, his life will come to an end. Probably an unhappy, brutal one. He knows that peace does not await him in death. He's got too many sins sitting at his back, and will commit many more before his time is up.

And it is a little like death, parting for air from lips that taste of honey, and blood; a mouth that feels like home; looking into eyes that seem to hold the very keys to life and death, health and happiness, and everything that Ethan could ever hope for in this world, and the next.

He can count on one hand how many times he's been at this particular crossroad before - choosing between the temporal and the eternal - but it offers him no solace. Nightmares, yes. Peace, never.

He doesn't deserve peace.

_Pain._

_Misfortune._

_Hell._

He's earned those, a million times over. Not that he's counting.

He's not got enough fingers to count all of his sins. There aren't enough fingers in the world to keep track of all of the wrong that he's done. All that he will do. He's not finished sinning yet. Won't be finished until he's dead, and buried; he has no hope of a decent burial. At least, not in this lifetime. Probably not in the next one either.

But for now he's got Dorian, and this kiss. A kiss that means nothing more than a kiss, and yet, somehow, means everything.

 


End file.
